As has been noted, Vicki Kennedy, Zeke Emmanuel, and E. J. Dionne, disability-rights activists joined Sean Cardinal O’Malley (hereby dubbed a prince of Twitter for his use of the outlet for education on Question 2) in Massachusetts to defeat the “Death with Dignity” assisted-suicide initiative there. This not only put a halt on what could have been a domino effect, but shows a model of bipartisan compassion in defense of life and real mercy. Forty years after Roe, this end-of-life coalition should be a model for beginning-of-life work.

This was no easy fight. A 30-point polling gap was overcome to defeat the initiative. There is a lot of bad news for a lot of us this morning, but, as my friend Greg Pfundstein says this morning “in a deep-blue, liberal, northeastern state like Massachusetts . . . it is still against the law for a doctor to give lethal drugs to a patient so that he can commit suicide.”